I know. I should know better by now, but I saw two comments... thought an uncomfortable object in my ass would be a funny thing to mention, certainly no one mentioned it in two comments... and there he is....

troggy:Where have you been since 2001? Everyone who gets paid to kill to advance US interests is a selfless hero now.Since the turn of the 20th century, the soldier has undergone an apotheosis, especially in English-speaking countries, which would have been shocking to even professional military men in the 18th and 19th centuries. This is largely because of the last two world wars, where the need for numbers of soldiers was high and even conscription was an insufficient tool for the task. You had to motivate young men with patriotism on one hand, and assure them that they would receive praise from a grateful nation on the other. Deprecating the soldiers of your country in any way was practically a hanging offence.Soldiers are neither better nor worse than the general population that they come from. Neither is courage any guarantor of any other decent human traits. Ask the Irish about Oliver Cromwell sometime- this was a man who was loved by his soldiers because he led from the front and was never afraid to get into the thick of a fight. Or "Smith's Gorillas", one of the best fighting units in the Union army in the Civil War, who had more than a bit of pyromania in the ranks.

cynicalbastard:troggy:Where have you been since 2001? Everyone who gets paid to kill to advance US interests is a selfless hero now.Since the turn of the 20th century, the soldier has undergone an apotheosis, especially in English-speaking countries, which would have been shocking to even professional military men in the 18th and 19th centuries. This is largely because of the last two world wars, where the need for numbers of soldiers was high and even conscription was an insufficient tool for the task. You had to motivate young men with patriotism on one hand, and assure them that they would receive praise from a grateful nation on the other. Deprecating the soldiers of your country in any way was practically a hanging offence.Soldiers are neither better nor worse than the general population that they come from. Neither is courage any guarantor of any other decent human traits. Ask the Irish about Oliver Cromwell sometime- this was a man who was loved by his soldiers because he led from the front and was never afraid to get into the thick of a fight. Or "Smith's Gorillas", one of the best fighting units in the Union army in the Civil War, who had more than a bit of pyromania in the ranks.

The fewer who serve, the more people see soldiers as heroes.

If most of the populace served, the would see less heroics in everyday nice guy actions.They would understand what is often misunderstood as "heroic" is just the starting point for a military person. And they would know things go badly often. And that sometimes our guys do terrible things.